Romance Novels

[Deleted]

I love Susan Elizabeth Philips' books and I enjoy some Judith McNaught & Iris Johansen now and then. I also go for the thinner ones (Harlequin, M&B, Loveswept, and all the 3,457 types of Silhouettes). I started collecting when I was nine, stopped back in college and continued a couple of years after that. I've tried to read all sorts of 'editions' but for some reason, Regency's the only that hasn't really appealed to me.

[shawnalanne]

Pepper67, if you like Georgette Heyer, I'd like to suggest Julia Quinn for the same reasons, her heroines don't simper and there is a thread of humor throughout her books.

[pepper67]

Thanks for the suggestion, Shawna! Are there any books of hers I should start with or avoid in particular?

Btw, if anyone's planning on reading Georgette Heyer, at all costs avoid her Penhallow detective fiction one. It's awful.

[tamaradixon]

Aiders, thanks for the suggestions and thanks to all.

I'm making up a summer reading list and these names will help. Seems I only have time to sit back and read when I'm away at our cottage. Never enough time to read here at home (blasted computer!)

[roseland]

I just finished reading the last of the Jamie and Claire series "The Fiery Cross." I know most people hated that book but I have to say that I liked it. Perhaps it was because I read the four books back to back but by the fourth book I was glad that things had slowed down a bit. It was starting to get ridiculous. It seemed like every fourth page, someone was in a life-threatening situation.

The thing I liked about "The Fiery Cross" were the little moments that add depth to Jamie and Claire's relationship. Like how Jamie admitted he enjoyed Claire at parties because he liked her animation. Or the way Jamie would give on certain things, like Claire's insistence on keeping most of the honey even though he really wanted to trade it. I enjoyed the gentle teasing the two would engage in with each other, knowing each other's faults and weaknesses and being secure enough in their relationship to tease each other about them. There was one moment in particular that liked. Claire and Jamie are on horseback together. Claire has just gotten up and is sitting in front of Jamie. Jamie is fretting about something (the horse, I think) and adjusting things and then, right before they start to move, Jamie kisses the top of Claire's head. It's such a small moment, really but it really resonated with me. No words are spoken but I think it speaks volumes of his love for her.

I also liked watching the building of a community. The ins and outs of starting a new life and not duplicating what you left behind but still managing to recreate that sense of loyalty and friendship you had before. I guess I just liked it that, despite some of the more hair-raising things that did happen, the characters were allowed to take a break and enjoy life. I felt they deserved that.

[Gracie]

I just finished reading the last of the Jamie and Claire series "The Fiery Cross." I know most people hated that book but I have to say that I liked it. Perhaps it was because I read the four books back to back but by the fourth book I was glad that things had slowed down a bit. It was starting to get ridiculous. It seemed like every fourth page, someone was in a life-threatening situation.

I agree completely roseland. It's also interesting for me as my own ancestors were in the same area as the fictional Fraser's Ridge at the same time. I'm going to reread them again through the summer, but I really enjoyed them...even if it did take her 154 pages to describe one day!

[hurricaneval]

I also run in phases, sometimes it is a string of contemporaries followed by a binge on historicals. When I was younger I stayed pretty much with the historicals, mostly because the historicals were usually longer and had more complex characters and plotting. The contemporary romances of the time were mainly the disposable "Harlequin" types you could read in a single sitting. Not that there's anything wrong with that either.... I'm happy to say that contemporary contemporaries have evolved into complex novels of their own.

I am very picky about the historicals I read these days though. Enough of the "know-it-all-idiot-virgin and The Rake." (defined on a Yahoo group I belong to.) Oh, and I'm completely done with the Civil War "North vs. South" Romeo and Juliet genre. Or The Alamo. Leave it alone. We remember The Alamo. We just don't remember that much kissing at The Alamo.

[shawnalanne]

Pepper I like Julia's mid-career books the best. So I would start with How to Marry a Marquis.

Amanda Quick is another favorite author of mine, for many of the same reasons that Julia Quin is (but now that I think of it I like Amanda Quick a bit better. Her single title books, Mistress, Deception, Scandal, etc. ... (there are more). Are great fun to read.

[pepper67]

Thanks, Shawna! I've read all of Georgette Heyer's easily available books, and most of her hard to find books as well, so I was looking for a new author to start reading.

I tried reading Caroline Courtney as she was supposed to be GH's natural successor (according to her blurb). Her blurb was wrong.

Btw, has anyone read any Barbara Cartland books? They're pretty dire, IMHO. I managed to read seven of them and the hero and heroine were exactly the same in each book apart from the seventh. In that one, the heroine had red hair instead of blonde.

[Gracie]

Btw, has anyone read any Barbara Cartland books? They're pretty dire, IMHO. I managed to read seven of them and the hero and heroine were exactly the same in each book apart from the seventh. In that one, the heroine had red hair instead of blonde.

Unfortunately, yes. Back in the day when I was but a wee Graciette, the maternal unit thought these would be much more appropriate for my burgeoning puberty than say, Kathleen Woodiwiss.

Thanks to Barbara Cartland, I learned what tulle and the Bon Ton was. Unfortunately, I'd already read Woodiwiss' "The Wolf and the Dove" and discovered I liked that better.